cover image Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief

Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief

Walter Stephens. University of Chicago Press, $46 (478pp) ISBN 978-0-226-77261-5

Throughout the centuries of witch trials in Europe, many Christian thinkers were interested (perhaps a little too interested) in a certain recurring theme of the witches' testimonies: their stories of sex with demons. A Johns Hopkins Italian studies professor, Walter Stephens, looks at this preoccupation in his scholarly but accessible work, Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief. Perusing 15th- and 16th-century writings on witchcraft from various European countries, Stephens argues that theories of demon copulation are more than just misogynistic expressions of ambivalence toward female sexuality: they were vital to Christian thought, a way for theologians to resolve perennial questions about the existence of God and the supernatural. (Mar. 14)